


Until the End of the World

by idola



Category: Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu | The Legend of the Legendary Heroes
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zero Escape Fusion, Denyuuden AU Week 2020, Gen, Pandemics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:42:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24823291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idola/pseuds/idola
Summary: On December 31st, 2028, a virus escapes into the world.
Relationships: Ryner Lute & Tiir Rumibul
Kudos: 3





	Until the End of the World

**Author's Note:**

> day 7 - free day

Ryner went to sleep on a night exactly like any other.

Well, not _exactly_ like any other.

It was New Year’s Eve, 2028.

That day would only ever come once. But the same went for any other day, too - August 3rd, 2027? November 19th, 2028? Nobody cared about those days unless it was their birthday, but they’d only come once, too. Just like this particular New Year’s Eve.

That was Ryner’s logic for turning in long before the festivities finished. Frankly, staying up late was a pain. He’d rather get some good pillow time in, and he could always hear about whatever antics everyone had gotten up to the next day if it was anything worth hearing about. So he closed his eyes and went to bed.

Then morning came. He slept through that, too.

Then noon came. Normally Ferris would’ve beat down his door and made him get up long before then. But she didn’t. He woke to the sun hot on his face, and stretched every finger and toe before he found the energy to roll over and sit up.

It was weird. Really weird.

He never got to sleep in. Not that he was complaining. He yawned loudly, then felt around for the remote. He was too lazy to get up and get his phone from the side of the room where it spent the night charging, so on mornings like this he usually turned the news on first to hear about what time it was and if the weather would be best suited to indoor or outdoor naps.

The TV brr-ed as it turned on. It was a little old, but hey, it worked. Usually. A picture formed on the screen.

Ryner blinked. Then he looked down at the remote.

“Weird… I don’t remember changing the channel,” he mumbled to himself and typed the channel for the news in manually, then looked back up at the TV.

The numbers appeared in the corner of the screen as confirmation that it’d heard the remote. But the channel didn’t change.

“……”

Ryner turned the volume up to something he could hear.

_“—virus escaped from a facility near the Estabul border last night. Patient zero was recovered from the facility. At the time, she was already symptomatic. She displayed disorientation, slow movements, and an inability to understand commands. The decision was made to transfer her to a neurology hospital in Reylude, but she committed suicide just before arriving.”_

Ryner felt his body tense. A suicide case wasn’t all that uncommon in Roland. The country was a shithole. But… patient zero? Virus?

_“Two hours later, the paramedics who transferred her had all committed suicide as well. Forty-five minutes after that, the employees at the fast-food restaurant they got lunch together at were all symptomatic, too. Everyone who has gone near the Neurology hospital today is asked to report their potential exposure and self-quarantine. We expect that thousands are currently infected in Reylude alone as a result of patient zero’s transfer.”_

It didn’t feel real. They were showing real pictures of real people with bloody mosaic blurs over gunshot wounds, knife wounds, and car accidents. They showed an aerial view of town. He recognized that street.

Ryner stood and walked over to the window. It was a sunny day. The sun had felt so good until just a moment ago. But now, when he squinted against it and peered outside… 

“…No fucking way,” Ryner whispered.

A part of him had been certain that his TV was broken, or maybe that the news was actually an ad about some apocalyptic thriller that’d hit the shelves soon. But that part died as soon as his eyes focused on the familiar road outside.

It was a pretty busy area just off the main highway. This time of day, there would be all sorts of cars passing through. But right now, the cars were all stationary. And between them… between them were splotches and splatters of red. 

He wanted to open the window and call out to see if anyone needed help. But the serious voice from the TV paralyzed him.

 _“—If you witness suicidal behavior, do not - I repeat, do_ not _attempt to stop them. Allow them to commit suicide. This virus is highly contagious. If you try to stop someone from committing suicide, you will be next.”_

“No fucking way,” Ryner repeated. He heard a crash somewhere in the distance. Another car.

He tore his eyes away. His phone. Sion. Ferris. Were they okay?

He tried Sion’s number first. No answer.

Ferris, then. His hands were sweating. It took three tries to call her. No answer.

“…No…”

What was he supposed to do? Go outside and search for them? What if he got sick and died? He didn’t really mind if his life ended like that, but what would they say if they were really alright? What if he made them cry?

“No, no, no…”

He heard a scream upstairs. Banging. Screaming. Then the shadow of a body passed by his window.

He tried calling them again. Sion, then Ferris, then Ferris, then Sion.

“……”

Nobody answered.

Sion was… Sion was Sion. He was perfectly likely to be working in an empty room, completely oblivious to the world, with his phone dead so that nobody would distract him. He didn’t get out much. He might be okay.

But Ferris? Every morning, she wandered around town and ate her fill of dango. She passed countless people over the course of a day, and… and she was Ferris. Even if she saw the news, she’d almost certainly believe that it was some sci-fi movie without even bothering to check the channel. She was naive to a fault.

“……”

Iris didn’t have a phone, and if Ferris’ brother did, Ryner didn’t know his number. So he couldn’t very well call around for her. Unless… maybe Kiefer knew? Shit, was Kiefer okay?

He tried Kiefer’s number.

Finally, finally it connected.

“…Ryner?”

“Kiefer!”

“Ryner… I’m so glad to hear from you,” Kiefer said. She sounded… small. Sad. Very quiet and hard to make out. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”

Ryner nodded even though she couldn’t see it. “I slept all morning, I’ve not even gone outside… isn’t this all wild, though? Like… like one second, the most annoying thing in the world was that the sun was too hot on my face, and then the next…”

“Thousands are dead.”

“…Yeah. Thousands…”

“It’ll be millions in a few days at this rate,” Kiefer said. “What should we do…?”

He didn’t know. If he knew, he’d probably try to do it. Just a little. Because… wasn’t this exactly the kind of situation where he was supposed to put some effort in?

He heard Kiefer sob on the other end. He didn’t know what to say to that.

He could say that he wanted to put effort in, but… in reality, he didn’t even know how to comfort her. Much less how to stop anyone from getting hurt or dying.

“…Hey, Kiefer. Have you gone outside today?”

“I did,” she said. “I… I went for groceries this morning. It was probably on the news, but I hadn’t watched it, and… and everything was open, and if it was a little empty, I didn’t notice until I got home and heard the news. Why didn’t they say something sooner? Did they think they could cover it up…?”

“……”

“Ryner… tell me it’ll be okay.”

Wouldn’t that be lying to her? Ryner looked back outside. There was a body on the ground outside his window. The highway was more blood than concrete. It hadn’t even been a day.

If that was what it looked like after a few hours, how could they possibly be okay years from now?

“Ryner…”

“…Sorry,” he said. “I just feel… really tired. I think I’m gonna take a nap. You should try to stay inside.” 

“But… it’s still going to be here tomorrow, isn’t it?” Kiefer asked. “And the day after that and the day after that?”

“……”

“They haven’t even come up with a name for it yet,” Kiefer said. “They haven’t even named it, and it’s already killed thousands! What if I can never go outside again? What if I can never see you again!?”

Ryner’s chest ached as her words stabbed him. What if he could never see her again? What if he could never see Sion or Ferris again? “I’ll call you again once I get a little more sleep,” Ryner promised.

“O, okay…”

They said their goodbyes. Ryner took his nap. But when he woke up and called Kiefer to check back on her, she didn’t pick up.

\---

The death count hit one million worldwide on the seventh day. They finally had a name for it, too.

They called it Radical-6 because it slowed down the brain’s processing speed by the square-root of six. That was what drove people to suicide. Their minds couldn’t keep up with the world around them, and they quickly became so overwhelmed that death felt like it was the only way out of their infected minds.

Everyone knew about it after the first day, so the spread slowed quite a bit. It spread in the air, and lived for a few hours after a human breathed it out. So it was possible to live without leaving the house as long as you ordered food and water, then waited a few hours after it was delivered to pick it up.

Of course, no one could go to work or anything, so there were lots of package thieves. Ryner went to sleep hungry more often than not.

Even so, it seemed like things were going to be okay for the people who’d lived past the initial spike. Until it didn’t.

“……”

The news was impossible to ignore, no matter how much he wanted to. Because he wanted to see if anyone he knew fell among the names of the deceased, or if they were okay.

For example… maybe Ferris lost her phone. And maybe Sion was too scared to pick his up and call to see if Ryner was okay, so he just left it dead. They might do things like that… right?

Kiefer was probably… probably dead. But… maybe she was okay, too. Maybe she just had horrible, week-long food poisoning.

_“Food distribution is becoming a major issue. Pilots are crashing planes, and the infected have nearly driven cars off the highways due to suicidal behavior causing accidents at unprecedented numbers. Farmers have abandoned their fields and livestock out of fear for the virus in the air…”_

Ryner’s stomach grumbled. He stood and stretched, then built up the resolve to look out at the street.

There were more bodies today than there were yesterday. They were piled up on the sides of the road, the middle of the road, in cars and on top of them. Vultures picked at them eagerly, fearlessly. His mouth watered.

“…Wonder if vulture tastes like chicken?”

Still, he couldn’t exactly go out and check. That’d be suicidal. Literally. So he sat back down. 

The rich were doing alright for themselves because they could afford fancy gas masks and respirators to keep the virus out. But Ryner wasn’t rich enough to buy one with how much price gouging was going on, and he hadn’t owned anything like that before shit went down, so he was pretty much stuck at home.

If he could, though, he’d get one for sure. So that he could check on Sion and Ferris and Kiefer and everyone else. But even that thought sent a fresh wave of nausea through his empty stomach. Because… what would he do if he went to see if Sion was alright to find that he wasn’t? What if he went to see Ferris and she was half-rotten?

“…I hate this,” Ryner whispered to himself. He looked back at the TV and its doomsday announcer. She was a new lady. The one from yesterday must’ve killed herself.

_”The current recommendation is to avoid drinking tap water in addition to breathing unpurified air. Radical-6 has been found to survive in tap water even after purification. Please only use bottled water from before 2029 from now on. Boiling tap water is not 100% effective.”_

“The hell? That’s not going to last…”

If the water was going to kill him in a few days anyway, then maybe it was better to just get out there and see if the others were okay. And get some chicken.

Ryner stretched, then gulped.

He’d been staying inside because he knew that Sion would tell him to stay in if he could right now. But if his time was really as short as the world’s supply of pre-bottled water, he had to take the chance.

“…I bet it’s been a while since Sion ate anything. I’ll bring him something good.”

Ryner looked towards his door. His poor, neglected door that he’d opened exactly twice since all of this started, both times to get a package. If some asshole hadn’t stolen the first package, he’d only have opened it once, though.

He took a step towards the door. His heart raced.

He’d gotten used to all sorts of horrible things lately. Turning on the news and seeing bodies that no one bothered to put mosaics over because they’d see them if they looked out their window anyway. Smelling rot from the crack under his front door, because after a week, bodies seriously started to stink. They’d been distracted and upsetting at first, but in just a week both of those things became painfully normal, to the point where he didn’t even notice them anymore.

But stepping outside? Now that was cause for alarm. So his body reacted accordingly.

He took another step towards the door. It felt like his heart would spring out of his chest. But if he was going to die anyway, he wanted answers.

He wanted to see if Sion was okay. He wanted to see if Ferris was okay.

He didn’t have to talk to them. He’d stay six feet apart so they wouldn’t get sick even if he did. He just wanted to make sure that they were alright somewhere out there, safe from the hell the world had turned into in such a short span of time.

And if they weren’t okay and all Ryner found was bodies… then maybe he’d get sick going out, too, and they could at least share the same grave. Maybe they’d even get to be roomies in the next version of hell they visited.

…Actually, he didn’t really want to room with either of them. They were both way too mean to him for that. He’d like a single room, if at all possible. 

The doorknob felt wet. But that was only because of how sticky and sweaty his own fingers were. Come to think of it, if they weren’t supposed to use the water anymore, didn’t that mean that they weren’t supposed to bathe? Ugh. Roland was way too hot for a shitty rule like that.

He twisted the doorknob… and pulled it open. A fresh wave of rot washed over him, strong enough that his gag reflex reacted before he had the chance to bring his hand to his mouth. So he swallowed it instead. Because he really didn’t want to be the guy with puke all over his door. They might not leave his packages then.

Ryner took a step out. He expected the outdoor hall to be empty. But when he looked around, there was a man with a respirator and a big package in his arms standing next door, staring.

“…Youuu!!” Ryner half-yelled. “You’re the one who stole my instant noodles, aren’t you!?”

The man blinked. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking with his expression hidden under his respirator. He took a step back, then seemed to think better of it and took a couple steps forward, towards Ryner. “Do you go outside often?”

“Uh, no… this is my first time, other than getting packages.” It felt really weird talking to another person after all this time. Ryner’s voice felt odd being used to do something other than talk to himself. Did it sound odd to the other guy too, he wondered?

“Then come with me!”

“But I was gonna—”

“Just come with me!” The man shifted the package under one arm, then grabbed Ryner’s arm with his other hand and tugged him along.

“Uh, whoa, wait! This isn’t six feet apart!”

“It’s fine, just come with! I’ll make you some instant noodles.”

“…Do you have any chicken?” Ryner asked.

“I have lots of chicken.”

Well, that settled it!

Ryner’s growling stomach let him be carried along. They took an odd, winding path through the city’s alleys. Some had old bodies with knives stuck through the skulls or hearts. Others were surprisingly clean, considering the state of the world.

Ryner looked up at the sky. It was blue and unburdened by clouds. That too was surprisingly nice, considering everything. A week ago, it was the kind of weather that’d make him want to nap. January wasn’t the warmest month, but they were in Roland where ‘cold’ was still a far cry above freezing. He couldn’t help but close his eyes.

If he pretended like he couldn’t smell the rot, it’d seem like a nice day in their nice old city. But it wasn’t really possible to ignore the rot, and he’d trip over bodies if he kept his eyes closed. So he was forced to open them back up.

Eventually they stopped in front of an abandoned building. It looked like it hadn’t been in use even before the virus. “We’re here.”

“…Where’s here?”

“Home away from home,” the man said, almost proudly as he let go of Ryner’s arm and unlocked the door. “By the way, I’m Tiir. What’s your name?”

“Ryner.”

“Nice to meet you,” Tiir said. He pushed the door open with a loud creak. He didn’t turn the lights on. There probably wasn’t any electricity. He set the box down on the inside of the door and locked it again once Ryner followed him in.

“…So how are you gonna make that feast?” Ryner asked as he followed Tiir through the next door.

“Feast!?”

“Yeah, you pretty much promised a banquet,” Ryner said. 

Tiir removed the respirator and shook his head to get his hair off his face. He looked really different without the mask, somehow. Maybe it was the pout. “Don’t be too greedy, okay? As much as I’d love to make you a banquet, you’re not the only mouth I have to feed!” 

“Really? There are others?”

Tiir nodded. “I’ve been finding as many people as I can. I’ll bring you to them in a few days.”

“Why not today?”

“We have to quarantine, obviously.”

Well, now that he said it, yeah. That _was_ pretty obvious. “So, uh… do you have the chicken? Or do they?”

“They do. This building doesn’t have a refrigerator, sorry.”

“Damn.”

“I can still make you instant noodles, though,” Tiir promised.

The building they were in was evidently an office at some point - it had old tables and chairs, the same kind old schools had, but the closest thing it had to a kitchen was a few counters with a microwave and toaster. And there wasn’t any electricity.

Tiir crouched down by the counters and opened one of the drawers. It was filled with bottled water and instant noodles. There was a portable stove, too. The gas kind that didn’t need any electricity as long as you had a lighter.

Ryner crouched down beside him and grabbed one of the packages of noodles. “Hey, wait, this is my favorite flavor! They were all sold out when I tried to order them again after some asshole stole my package the first time.”

“…Sorry?”

“……”

The situation was so bizarre that until that moment, Ryner hadn’t even thought to form an opinion about Tiir. He’d been too focused on the concept of actual humans still existing. But he suddenly realized that he really didn’t like him, because he had no respect for noodle stealing thieves. But at the same time, his mouth was watering at the thought of his beloved noodles.

“It’s okay,” Ryner said. For the instant noodles. “But all these are mine now. I paid for them.”

Tiir didn’t answer. He just took a pan, a bottle of water, a lighter, and the portable gas stove.

Ryner watched as Tiir made a serving of noodles, then accepted the pan when Tiir was finished. “You aren’t gonna have any?”

Tiir just smiled. “I’ll make one for myself when you’re done. We only have one pan.”

“…You sure? If I’m infected, you’re gonna get it too.”

“You aren’t infected if you told me the truth,” Tiir promised. “Not unless I infected you; it doesn’t live long in dead bodies. And if I infected you, then we’ll both just die here together.”

It was kind of an odd thing to say to someone he just met, Ryner thought. But everything was so weird now that he soon accepted it. There were strangers piled outside too, he was sure. Most of them probably had no idea who the corpses they were lying with were. That was just how things were now. So dying with someone he’d at least talked to now wasn’t the worst case scenario.

More importantly… 

“So do you have any more of those respirators?” Ryner asked.

“I do. They’re at home.”

“Can I use one?”

“For what?” Tiir asked.

“Well, see… I was going outside ‘cause I haven’t heard from my friends since all this started. I wanted to go check on them…”

Tiir’s hand was on Ryner’s forehead in an instant. Ryner almost choked on the broth. But just as fast as he’d put it there, Tiir pulled his hand away and sighed in relief. “No fever. You should be more careful than that, though. What if you got infected?”

“Well, I’d die.”

“Yeah. You’d die.” Tiir said and tsked. “But if you really want to search for them, then fine. We can go and look for them once I know we’re safe enough to get another respirator.”

Ryner nodded. “By the way, where’d you even get those? Are you rich or something?”

Tiir laughed. “Of course not. I stole them!”

…Why did he sound so proud…?

Tiir ate after Ryner finished, just like he said he would. He scarfed the noodles down like he was starved half to death, even though he’d let Ryner eat first.

“…Hey. How many people have you found?” Ryner asked.

“Mm? Umm, a few.”

“How many is a few?”

“Thirty-two.”

“…Whoa. Where do you even keep that many people?”

“We took control of a hotel. I found the key to the front door in a dead woman’s pocket. It’s a good thing she was wearing a nametag with the company on it, or I would have never known what it was for.”

Once again, Tiir sounded awfully proud of scavenging in dead bodies and stealing buildings. But if he was just using it to give safe housing to a couple dozen people, then… could Ryner really get angry about it? It was better than starving alone in his room, wasn’t it?

Tiir showed him to the office’s ‘bedroom,’ but that was a major overstatement. It was a couple tables with blankets and pillows on them. They were rock hard.

“Sorry,” Tiir said. “It’s hard moving mattresses. They’re bulky, hard to get a good hold on, and scavengers outside might try to fight for them. So the best I could do are these blankets.”

At least the tables meant they’d sleep over the cockroaches instead of with them.

\---

Ryner was just starting to get tired of instant noodles when Tiir deemed them safe to go to the hotel.

“Does that mean we can search for the others today?” Ryner asked.

Tiir hummed like he didn’t want to answer, but Ryner didn’t give in.

“I’ll just go myself without the respirator if you don’t want to.”

Tiir sighed. “Oh, fine. But… just don’t get your hopes up.”

“……”

Tiir wasn’t especially optimistic for someone who was gathering and feeding survivors, even going so far as to steal for them and put his life in danger for them, presumably for free. Ryner could respect his selfless acts, but his doomsday attitude got real old real fast. If he wanted doomsday, he could just look outside. He didn’t need to hear it from Tiir too.

The hotel was just across the street. If Ryner had spent more time looking outside, he might’ve noticed it. But the area didn’t feel that safe, so he’d been avoiding the windows. Still, it was a straight walk from their makeshift quarantine to the hotel.

Most hotels had sliding doors at the entrance nowadays, but this one’s front doors were barred over. So they went through a side door. Apparently they found the side keys inside after infiltrating the front door around when this started.

The second Tiir opened it and stepped inside, he was tackled by an army of children.

“You’re baaack!!”

“Tiir, Tiir, Tiir!”

They were all so damn excited. Ryner had to push through to make it inside and get the door closed behind them. Then he set the package Tiir had stolen just befor they met down in front of it.

“Oh, you got us a present!”

“What’s inside!?”

Tiir laughed. “It’s a surprise!”

Tiir had opened it back in quarantine just to make sure that it wasn’t something inappropriate. It’d turned out to be water, potato chips, and boxed macaroni and cheese. So Tiir had retaped it and told Ryner not to touch it, which was why they ate nothing but instant noodles until now.

One of the kids finally noticed Ryner, looked him up and down, and then stuck his nose up. “Eww, you need a shower!”

“You guys have running water?” Ryner asked. “Electricity?”

“Probably only until the end of the month,” Tiir said. “But yes. For now, we have water and electricity.”

Three weeks of free electricity, huh? Not bad in this day and age!

As soon as that thought went through Ryner’s mind, he scowled. To think that just ten days ago he’d been living a simple and easy life, and now he was excited about three weeks of showers.

…But still. A shower sounded really good after being stuck in a hot building without air conditioning with another man and nothing to eat but instant noodles for three days.

A teenager caught Ryner’s eye from across the room and waved him over. Ryner looked at the kid who’d already lost interest in him after telling him that he smelled, then Tiir who was the reason the kids lost interest in Ryner, then shrugged and walked over to the teen instead.

“Tiir’s going to be busy for a while,” he said. “I’m Lafra. Want me to show you around?”

“Uh, sure?”

Lafra beamed and grabbed Ryner by the arm. “Great! Come on, the rooms start on the second floor. We weren’t expecting a new resident, but we already cleaned all the rooms, so you can just pick one.”

“…Wait, you guys want me to live here? Like, full-time?”

“Would you rather live alone?”

No… no, he wouldn’t.

Lafra showed him around. There were elevators, but they’d disabled the fire alarm so that they could use the stairs, too. So they took the stairs up to the second floor where everyone lived.

They were all in the habit of keeping a shoe in the doorknob to keep them from locking in case the card keys began to malfunction due to the hotel company realizing that this building was compromised. It meant a little less privacy than Ryner was used to, but he could understand the logic. Better to be safe than sorry and all.

There were also vending machines on the second floor, but the glass had been broken open. The snacks were thoroughly raided.

“…I got here too late,” Ryner grumbled. “You guys already ate all the jerky.”

Lafra laughed. “I’ll tell Tiir that you want some. He has a good memory for everyone’s favorites. He’ll definitely keep an eye out for it.”

It was interesting that Tiir was so popular here. Ryner had spent the past three days with him and couldn’t say that he’d come up with an especially positive opinion. Tiir was a little… clingy, honestly, and always wanted to talk when Ryner didn’t, and about things that Ryner didn’t even care about to boot.

Plus, he was a little… well, opinionated. Okay, a lot of opinionated. Talking to Tiir could be really draining. He had opinions about the virus, about the government response, about the things everyone else was doing, and then turned around and stole packages and looted bodies _while_ preaching about how horrible everyone else was.

Maybe the kids were just gullible enough to deal with it. Or maybe Ryner was the one who was wrong.

“So is Tiir in charge around here?” Ryner asked as Lafra showed him their well-stocked main fridge. Apparently they all had mini-fridges, too.

“Not really,” Lafra said.

Not really, huh… 

Lafra turned towards him, then leaned against the refrigerator. “Do you not like Tiir?”

“Well, it’s not that I don’t like him…”

Lafra smilied. “But you don’t want to live by his rules.”

Ryner shrugged. “Listen, I really just want to find my friends. Once I see for myself how they’re doing, I’ll… we’ll see what to do from there. I mean, you guys have a nice little place here, so…”

Lafra nodded. “Well, I hope you’ll stay. It’s a lot safer here.”

“…Yeah. I hope so.”

The kids had torn into the package and were making duck beaks with the potato chips inside by the time Ryner and Lafra returned. Although the kids were the ones who’d come down to wait for Tiir’s return, he’d seen that a lot of the rooms were occupied by teenagers and young adults during Lafra’s tour. Probably about three-fourths were under the age of eighteen, and the remaining fourth was people who were for the most part younger than Tiir.

According to Lafra, that was because kids of parents who’d gotten the virus and committed suicide were a lot more likely to wander around outside than adults, and Tiir hated leaving kids to die. So he quarantined them with himself, then brought them to the hotel if they lived.

“Has anyone died while in quarantine?” Ryner asked.

“…A couple,” Lafra said. “At least, I’m pretty sure. Tiir did shorter quarantines at first, but he keeps making them longer. I think something must have happened to make him change his mind about what was safe.”

That meant that Tiir had been exposed already. Probably more than once. “Is Tiir immune, then?”

“I don’t know. He might be. Or he might have just gotten lucky.”

“……”

Ryner watched the kids play on Tiir for a while longer before clearing his throat.

“Hey, Tiir?”

Tiir looked over, surprised. As if he’d gotten so busy playing house that he forgot all about Ryner. “Oh! Yes?”

“Are you ready to show me where the respirators are?”

Tiir bit his lips and nodded. “Yeah, um… let’s go look for your friends. Together. But are you sure you don’t want to eat a real meal before we go? We’ll have to quarantine for another three days once we leave, after all…”

“I’d rather go now,” Ryner said.

Tiir nodded. He showed Ryner to a safe inside of a kitchen shelf. Tiir was on the short side and had to half-step on the counter to reach it. But in doing so, he also shielded the code he was inputting from Ryner.

Well, Tiir was the one who found them, he guessed… 

…Wait, actually, didn’t Tiir just steal them? They weren’t even his! What right did he have to hide them inside a safe!? Ryner grimaced. 

Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers. He put the respirator that Tiir handed to him on. Tiir corrected the straps to make sure it was air-sealed.

With that, they headed back outside.

It really had no business being as nice of a day as it was. Sunny, cloudless blue, and comfortable warmth on his skin. But it smelled. It had always smelled in Reylude on hot days. But not always like dead bodies. Usually just like trash that needed to be taken out, or like piss, or… or some other relatively harmless thing. It was never like this.

“So where do your friends live?” Tiir asked. He didn’t sound too happy to be out looking for them, even though he was collecting people who didn’t have anywhere else to go. It was that unpredictable pessimism of his.

“Well… Ferris is kind of far, but Sion should be close enough,” Ryner said. He nodded to himself. His face already felt sweaty under his mask, but there was no turning back. He had to know if Sion was alright.

Ryner led the way through body-lined streets. They were ten days in and no one wanted to risk coming out to get the bodies. Of course there were people with respirators like what Tiir had, but after seeing the carnage outside, nobody really thought it was safe. Not compared to how safe their own homes were, at least… 

“…Hey, Tiir. How many people do you think are really dead? Like, what percent of the city?”

Tiir glanced around the piles of bodies. “Hmm… it can’t be too many.”

“So you’re thinking, like… I dunno, four percent?” Ryner offered.

Tiir nodded. “There are bodies on the street, sure, but it’s nowhere near the amount of people who would be out here on a regular pre-virus day.”

“Hmm… that’s true.” 

There were about six million people in Relude before everything started, so if four percent had died, that was… uhh… 

“…That’s 240,000 people, right?” Ryner asked.

Tiir shrugged. Apparently math wasn’t his strong suit. “Sounds about right, doesn’t it?”

Ryner looked around at the bodies. “Yeah… it does, doesn’t it.” Over a million had died worldwide, since the virus made its way through the international airport on day one. But Reylude was only a portion of the world.

More importantly, if four percent of everyone in the city was dead, then that meant that there was only a four percent chance that Sion was dead. When he looked around at all the bodies, it seemed unlikely that anyone had actually lived. But if it was really only four percent… Sion and Ferris might really be okay.

It was about a twenty minute walk to Sion’s place. It should’ve only been twelve but… well, he got a little lost. Because he didn’t normally take this route to see Sion - the hotel was in a different direction from it than Ryner’s apartment was. Tiir talked the whole way, about this and that, as if they weren’t stepping over bodies.

Ryner sighed with relief when they finally found Sion’s place. His door was locked so Ryner knocked. But there was no answer.

“……”

That really… wasn’t reassuring.

“Heeey, Sion! It’s me, Ryner!”

No response.

“…Ryner, umm…”

Ryner ignored Tiir and banged harder on the door. “Open up, Sion!”

“…Ryner… I think we should—”

“Shut up! I’m sure he’s in there, he’s… probably just…”

Ryner couldn’t find a convincing way to finish his sentence. Nothing that convinced himself, anyway. His heart rate was through the roof and he could hardly think. He looked to the knob, then to the side where the hinges ought to be, looking for any weakness in the door to force his way through.

Four percent. It was only four percent, right? So Sion had a ninety-six percent chance of being alive.

He didn’t have to panic. It was only four percent. But he was panicking.

Ryner slammed his hand against the door again and again. Anything to tell Sion that he was here. “Sion! Open up already, this isn’t funny!”

Another minute passed. Grief was already settling low in his stomach.

But then there was a click on the other side… and the door opened slowly.

“Sion!”

“…Ry… Ryner?” Sion said. He looked confused, but more than that, he really didn’t look too great. But he never really did. He was always worrying about things, and with the virus and everything he was probably worrying himself sick.

“…Ryner, get away,” Tiir said. He tugged on the back of Ryner’s shirt to bring him away, even though they’d come all this way to see Sion.

Ryner ignored him. “Sion, you had me so… ugh! Just… just get out here, alright? You look like you need to eat, and we’ve got food.”

Sion stared for a moment, then furrowed his eyebrows. 

“And how come you haven’t been answering your phone?” Ryner asked. “I was seriously… waurgh! Don’t make me worry like that again, okay?” He grabbed Sion by the wrist. “Come on, you’re coming with us.”

“What are you…?”

Tiir grabbed Ryner’s hand. The same hand that he’d grasped Sion’s wrist with. “Ryner,” he said in that uncomfortably gentle tone he likes so much. “I need you to let go. He’s unwell.”

“…He just needs to eat,” Ryner said. “We can’t just leave him here. I know Sion. He never keeps food around because he’s always too busy working to go grocery shopping or eat anything. He probably hasn’t eaten since all this started. He’ll perk right up once we get some noodles in him.”

“……”

“I promise,” Ryner said. “If he doesn’t, I—”

“You might get infected if we bring him with us,” Tiir said. “We should leave him here.”

“…We?” Ryner asked. He shook Sion’s arm for a response. But Sion just stared. “There’s no ‘we’ without Sion.”

Tiir sighed loudly, then continued with that sickly-sweet tone. “Ryner, you have to cut your losses. You had two friends, right? Why don’t we go see if the other one is okay instead? This one is hopeless.”

Ryner was about to quip back when Sion suddenly shook Ryner’s hand off and took a step back. “I can’t, I… have to…”

“Forget about your work,” Ryner said. “Or, I mean… if it’s really important, I can help you carry it?”

“I don’t… understand…?”

Ryner had thought that his heart would calm once he saw Sion. But if he thought it was beating hard earlier… now it was trying with all its might to beat its way straight out of his chest.

Sion was staring with hazy, distrustful eyes and Tiir was fidgeting behind him.

“…Sion,” Ryner said slowly. “Has anyone visited you recently?”

Sion nodded. “For food…”

“Shit,” Ryner said. “Ugh, shit!”

“I told you,” Tiir said.

“This isn’t the time for your ‘I told you so’ shit!” Ryner said. “What should we do…?”

“Leave him,” Tiir said. As if that was the most natural thing. As if living without Sion would be the most natural thing.

“Does… does everyone die?” Ryner asked. “They don’t all die, right? I heard… I heard that only seventy-five or eighty percent die…”

“Say he lives,” Tiir siad. “But then you get infected too. Do you think you’ll both hit your twenty percent chance of survival? It’s much more likely that one of you dies.”

Ryner shook his head. “It’s fine if I die… it’s not important. But Sion’s—”

“Infected, and therefore much more likely to die,” Tiir said. “Besides, it’s not fine if you die, Ryner. I mean… we’ve spent the past few days together. I don’t want to see you die.”

But he was okay with seeing Sion die, was he? 

“…Do you want this back?” Ryner asked Tiir. He put his hand over the respirator on his face. “I’m going to stay with Sion, but if you’re not, then—”

“I, I have to,” Sion stuttered. “I have to…”

Sion shuffled around his apartment for a moment.

Something glinted in Sion’s hand. Ryner gasped.

“W-wait!” Ryner said. “Don’t—”

But it was too late. a loud sound echoed through the room. Sion’s blood splattered across the room, the door… even Ryner’s hair. It would have gotten in his mouth if not for the respirator. He fell to his knees.

Why did Sion even have that? He wasn’t the type to keep one laying around. Someone would have had to bring him one… and for what? For self-defense? Bullshit.

That one word echoed in Ryner’s head.

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.

It stopped sounding like a real word. Maybe if he thought hard enough, it’d all stop feeling real.

He soon felt a hand on his shoulder. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but Sion. If he’d just… if he’d just come sooner, back before he met Tiir. If he’d just gone straight to Sion like he’d meant to, this wouldn’t have happened.

“Th, this is my… my…”

Arms wrapped around his body and hoisted him up. Ryner wanted to fight back, to stay here with Sion, but his muscles didn’t have the energy to fight. He was just… so tired. So, so tired.

Sion. That was Sion. He was looking at Sion’s blood.

His mind had trouble forming thoughts, and his muscles had trouble forming movements. He just let himself be carried back. By the time he came to, it was nighttime and he was back in the quarantine office with Tiir.

“…Why?” Ryner mumbled. “Why did this have to happen…?”

Tiir closed his eyes. “It was God’s will.”

“God… what?” Ryner said. He could hardly comprehend what Tiir had just said. “God? You think a god would want this? You think a god would want Sion dead?”

“I didn’t know him, but I imagine he’s not as innocent as you seem to think he is,” Tiir said. “No one is.”

“Sion didn’t deserve to die.”

Tiir shrugged. “There’s no way for us to know that.”

“……”

Ryner wanted to leave. But if he did… he’d just be alone again.

Tiir settled next to him. Around him. Lay his head on Ryner’s and pet his hair. “This is why I didn’t want to look for them,” Tiir said. “I knew it’d make you sad.”

No… the best thing to do wouldn’t be to not look. It would have been to look sooner. So… so Ferris… 

He couldn’t bring himself to say that, though. Because Ferris wasn’t like Sion. She definitely, absolutely, unquestionably would have come to visit Ryner in the week he’d stayed locked up in his room if she were okay. Because that was the kind of person she was. Even if he looked for her… he didn’t think he’d find her anywhere.

“……”

Ryner closed his eyes. Tiir’s hand in his hair felt odd. It was like… well, Ryner never had any parents. But he used to see kids with their parents. Often they’d pet the kids’ heads just like this. It’d always looked so comforting. Why didn’t it _feel_ comforting, then?

\---

Ryner stayed with Tiir because he didn’t know where else to go.

Three days after Sion passed away, they returned to the hotel. The bed was soft. The water was warm - the authorities had decided that it was safe enough to bathe as long as everyone kept their mouths closed in the shower and didn’t get any in their noses. The water vapor was safe - the virus living outside of peoples’ bodies connected to the heavier droplets rather than the vapor. 

Tiir made chicken, just like he promised. Apparently he found a lot of keys in dead peoples’ pockets, and that paired with their address on their IDs made it easy enough to raid their houses. Tiir said that was how he managed to provide for so many people. That was how he got them fresh meat despite everything.

That made sense at first, but after a few days Ryner stopped believing it. First of all, it was impossible. Sure, Tiir could raid fridges and find chicken. That was perfectly believable. But Tiir always self-quarantined for three days before coming back to the hotel, since it could take up to three days for the infected to die of suicide, even though they usually died within hours.

But if he got the chicken from a freezer and then waited three days with it in quarantine, what would happen? It’d defrost, then go bad. It’d absolutely go bad within three days. And there was no fridge in their quarantine office. They didn’t even have electricity.

So what was it, then?

After chewing each piece for a few minutes, Ryner realized that it wasn’t chicken at all. But what was it, then?

It hit when he was staring out his window one day. Staring at the massive birds picking at bodies. Animal reservoirs of the virus likely didn’t exist. There weren’t any cases of them, anyway. So Tiir had probably decided that it was safe to eat vulture.

It wasn’t bad either. Not really. And it was just… just vulture.

January ended. February began. At least, the kids said so. They had a little party. A February party. Ryner didn’t attend.

He just wasn’t in the mood to have parties. Sion was dead. Their electricity was still on, and they still had hot water, but what did that matter when Sion was dead? Ferris and Kiefer were probably dead, too.

Wasn’t that weird? Why was Ryner still alive if they were dead?

“……”

Ryner looked around his room. It was fairly barren. No ropes or strings. There wasn’t a knob on the bathroom door, and there wasn’t a bar to hang a shower curtain.

“…I guess Tiir must’ve removed them,” Ryner muttered to himself. He couldn’t remember if there were any of those things in the other rooms when Lafra gave him a tour or not, and he didn’t care to check now. It’d make sense if Tiir had taken them all off before inviting anyone, so he didn’t really care.

Radical-6 was a suicide virus. Of course Tiir would remove means to kill themselves.

Tiir was careful with not bringing anything in though, so… he was probably worried that they’d come to the independent conclusion to kill themselves, outside of the virus’ influence.

The death toll was far above four percent now. Ten, maybe? Fifteen? That meant that Reylude’s death roll would be approaching one million. What he saw outside certainly supported that.

One million would mean that one sixth of the city was dead. One sixth of everyone Ryner ever knew would be dead. But he wasn’t exactly in contact with anyone outside of the hotel anymore, so… he’d never know which ones died. Not at this rate, at least.

Still, just… the thought that he’d outlived so many of them. That he might continue to outlive many of them. Why? For what?

Sometimes the kids came to Ryner with questions about books. Tiir probably sent them to try to get Ryner to do something other than sleep, but he didn’t enjoy being woken up every few hours just so a kid could ask about how to pronounce something. Well, it wasn’t always little kids. Often it was Lafra.

Lafra was pretty attached to him for some reason. He asked Ryner his thoughts about the most mundane of things, and when Ryner asked why, Lafra would always say that it was because Ryner was so kind that his answers were always enlightening.

Yeah, right.

But who was he to turn him down if all Lafra wanted to do was talk to him?

It wasn’t like Ryner was the only person in this situation. Lafra was in it, too. Everyone was in it. Not a single person in the world was free of the world itself.

Well… maybe that wasn’t entirely true. The bodies on the side of the road were pretty free of it all.

February turned to March. They had a party for that, too. Ryner didn’t go to it.

He just did the same thing as he’d been doing. Living, somehow, with a dead heart hanging in his chest.

“…Do you wish that you were dead?”

Ryner jumped. He’d almost forgotten that Lafra was there. He forced his mind to think of a response, then forced his heavy lips to say it. “What’s this about, all of a sudden?”

“You just had that look in your eye,” Lafra said. He didn’t look any better, though.

Ryner didn’t say anything. So Lafra didn’t either. Not for a while.

Then Lafra turned on the TV. They watched it for a while. There were reruns of old sci-fi movies on the channel above the news. Apparently Lafra was into that stuff, because he left it there. They watched humans land on a new green world full of flowers.

“Think that’ll ever happen?” Lafra asked.

Ryner shrugged. “Not in our lifetimes.”

“The news said that they’ve confirmed immunity in those who’ve recovered from Radical-6,” Lafra said. “So they should be able to make a cure someday.”

But what good was a cure when they could be dead in fifteen minutes? They wouldn’t have nearly enough time to seek treatment. They’d need a vaccine, and it’d need to be effective. “Someday might be kinda far away,” Ryner said. “I mean, if they can’t get it out of the water or the air or anything, then it’ll take a pretty damn long time to find enough scientists who’re immune to it to make the cure in the first place.”

“I’m sure the scientists have PAPRs and hazmat suits,” Lafra said.

“……”

Lafra crossed his legs. “I’m going to go outside.”

Ryner nodded without really registering it. He closed his eyes, and now sleep was lapping at his mind once more. He yawned, then drifted off to sleep.

He dreamed of Sion and Ferris. Of the stupid conversations they used to have. Then he woke to gunshots.

When he sat up, the tears that’d gathered in his eyes as he slept slipped down his cheeks. That was a regular occurrence. Had the gunshots been in his dream?

He focused his ears on downstairs. Loud, heavy footsteps. Gunshots.

No. No, it wasn’t a dream. He forced his tired body up. He heard Tiir yell, and then the sound of something heavy slamming and cracking against the wall. More gunshots.

“…The hell is going on…?”

It took a moment for Ryner’s mind to catch up to the most likely problem. Someone had probably broken in… or forced their way in when Tiir opened the door to go get food. That or they had a Radical-6 break.

The blood drained from Ryner’s face. 

Actually… if there were people forcing their way in, then… wasn’t a Radical-6 break pretty likely? A lot of violence nowadays came from the urge to commit suicide due to the virus.

He looked around his room for something he could use as a mask. But nothing looked like it’d work.

“Shit,” Ryner whispered. He thought of Lafra, who often came in to watch TV with him, a fragile smile on his face. Was he okay? Should he check? Was there anything that he could do?

Ryner listened through the ringing in his ears. But nothing came for quite some time. The gunshots had stopped. The yelling had stopped.

Then he heard someone ascending the stairs.

“I need everyone to stay inside.” Ryner recognized it as Tiir’s voice coming through his respirator. “Stay inside your room for three days. Don’t come out. You won’t die even if you don’t eat, I promise. Please just do what I tell you to. We can talk afterwards.”

\---

Ryner hadn’t left his room for days anyway. So it wasn’t difficult to follow Tiir’s order to quarantine inside of their rooms.

Their sinks had running water, but since there were always cases about catching Radical-6 from the water, Tiir asked them not to drink it. That was the hardest part. Sure, they all had a couple bottles of water just in case of emergencies like this. But it wasn’t all that much.

Tiir knocked on his door once three days were up. “Ryner, are you in there?”

“Where else would I be?”

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re still alright,” Tiir said. “You can open your door now. I have canned soup.”

Ryner stood up quickly and hurried over to the door. Tiir looked more tired than ever, with the darkest bags Ryner had ever seen under his eyes. He had a can of soup in one hand and a can opener in the other. Ryner grabbed them. “Time for a feast!”

Tiir smiled. It came off pretty forced. He sat on the bed while Ryner messed with the can. He didn’t explain the past few days. But Ryner was more concerned about the soup.

He drank it as slowly as he could force himself to. But it was still done in ten minutes.

Once it was done, Tiir cleared his throat.

“So what happened?” Ryner asked at his urging.

Tiir took a deep breath before answering. “When Lafra and I tried to leave to gather food, some people from outside tackled us.”

“I heard that part,” Ryner said. “Wait. Did you just say Lafra?”

“Yes.”

“Why did he…?”

“He wanted to feel the sun on his skin again,” Tiir said, then shook his head. “I shouldn’t have let him come.”

“…Did he die?”

Tiir nodded. “They shot him… And not just him. They shot three others. Four kids who had been there to see us off got away, but… but they killed themselves not long after.”

“So the guys who attacked you were infected.”

Another nod. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect everyone.”

“It was… a lot of people,” Ryner said. “Staying with us, I mean. People were gonna notice eventually.” It sounded lame even to his ears. “It’s not your fault. You did the best you could.”

Tiir shook his head. “It’s just… I’m sorry. I really, really am.”

“You did the best you could.” It didn’t sound any less hollow the second time.

“Can I… lean on your shoulder?” Tiir asked.

What did he have to lose now? The world was ending. So Ryner nodded.

Tiir rested his head on Ryner’s shoulder. It wasn’t comfortable at all. If anything, it was uncomfortable. Especially when he started sobbing into it. Because Ryner still didn’t know what to say or do.

He wasn’t Sion. He didn’t know what to do when things were bad.

He wasn’t Kiefer. He didn’t know what to say to people when things were bad.

He wasn’t Ferris. He didn’t know what to do to remind people that things wouldn’t always be bad.

“……”

He was just Ryner. Himself and no one else. He wasn’t good at these things. He wasn’t good at much of anything.

“…Thank you,” Tiir said after what felt like an hour. He raised his head. His face was puffy from crying. 

“How many lived?” Ryner asked.

“Fourteen, including us.”

That was enough, wasn’t it?

Ryner joined Tiir to see the survivors. Most were older. It looked like the kids hadn’t listened to his instructions very well. But, well, they were kids. And maybe this was for the best. Ryner hadn’t wanted to grow up in this world before Radical-6. He couldn’t imagine trying to grow up in it now.

Ryner helped Tiir look for food that day. He quarantined with him afterwards. He didn’t help cook or clean, though. The others did.

March turned to April. There was no April party. It just didn’t feel right without all the kids to get excited for it. And their utilities at the hotel finally got cut off. That wasn’t anything to celebrate.

Food was getting harder to find close by. They had to go further and further into the city to get it, which meant longer trips away from the hotel.

“…It’s too bad the bodies rot so quickly in this heat,” Tiir said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, we could have eaten them if they weren’t rotten.”

Ryner grimaced. Tiir’s disregard for human life never really changed, which was kind of ironic seems as he had enough of a martyr complex to try to feed every lost kid he found.

“…Ahh, I miss eating fresh food…”

It was a day like any other.

April 13th, 2029.

That day would only ever come once. But the same went for any other day, too. So it shouldn’t have been special.

They were digging around in an old tornado shelter on the outskirts of town when the loudest sound Ryner had ever heard began to rumble through the sky. He looked to Tiir, eyes wide. Tiir looked back, stepped closer, and gripped his hand.

It was a gesture Ryner had gotten used to after spending so much time with Tiir. He did it for comfort. Because they were the two oldest now, and they couldn’t very well turn to teenagers for comfort. They only had each other.

His vision turned white. Tiir shoved him into the ground and covered him with his body as if that would somehow help save them from the explosion. He groaned. Then Ryner did. Because an unreal heat was ripping into his body.

It lasted for several minutes. When it finally finished, Tiir rose first, somehow. He stood, wobbled over to a wall, then promptly threw up on it.

Ryner could understand the urge. Horrible nausea had made its home inside his gut, but he couldn’t say if it was because of nervousness or some effect of what had just happened.

“What… what was that?” Tiir gasped.

“I think it was… a bomb,” Ryner said. “An explosion. Maybe not a bomb, but definitely an explosion. Like a… like the… the antimatter reactor in town?”

“In… in town?” Tiir asked. He dry retched. “But… but the… the others?”

Ryner was silent. His arms felt like they were going to fall off. No, not just fall. They were shaking like they were trying to run off themselves. Away from whatever hell this was.

They had to go back. But he really, really didn’t want to move. And he really, really didn’t want to see the hotel.

\---

The air above the tornado shelter was impossible to see through. It was all dust and debris. The explosion hadn’t just unsettled them. It had unsettled the whole world.

It took a lot longer than usual to find their way home with how limited the visibility was. They found a lot of fresh bodies, too. One had a suicide note. It talked about the antimatter reactors, and the world’s plan to detonate them to rid them of the virus.

“…I guess it was the reactors,” Ryner mumbled. “Someone with Radical-6 must have done it.”

Tiir nodded. 

Tiir took care of the bodies from the explosion just like he took care of the bodies from the shooting. They all died, in the end. Ryner and Tiir were the only ones left.

The city didn’t really feel safe anymore, so they left. They went north, to towns dotting the edge of the country. They looted one village, then left for the next. There had to be other survivors, but they never saw them.

They settled into a routine after the world ended. They ate and drank what they could. They slept where they could. They found a radio. Apparently a lot of the survivors had gone underground on government orders. But Tiir didn’t trust the government, so they didn’t.

Ryner looked up at the sky. It hadn’t changed since the day the reactors blew.

One hundred and three days was all it took.

One hundred and three days and the planet went from a beautiful green to a nuclear winter.

The sky was dark like night nowadays because the sun was hidden by a thick layer of dust. Ryner wasn’t a scientist, and pretty much all the scientists were dead anyway, but it didn’t take a real scientist to know that blotting out the sun like this was going to fuck them all over sooner than later.

The only thing they could really do now was search for stores and houses that still had supplies. Water, cereal, anything they could eat. A lot of stores had been emptied completely, but every now and then they found just enough to live off of.

Ryner thought they were in Cassla now. Maybe north of it. And he thought it was probably August.

He still argued with Tiir all the time. He still didn’t like him more often than not. But he hadn’t seen another human in months. They were all they had. So Tiir became something like family. The older brother Ryner never had, maybe.

“We’ll need to start going south again soon,” Tiir said. “The virus may have started there, but it’s mostly gone now, and the winter is more likely to kill us than Radical-6.”

True. The debris had made the world a lot colder, since the sun couldn’t reach them as well. Even Roland’s winters might have some chill to them now. “It’ll be weird to be back home.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Tiir asked. Then he looked around the empty town they were in. “I grew up around here, not in Roland.”

“In Cassla?”

“By the northern border of Runa.”

“Huh.” That explained where his religious streak came from. “Think we can find somewhere with electricity to spend the night?”

“Probably not.”

Ryner forced a smile. There was that pessimism he’d come to know and tolerate. He had to. Because if he only had Tiir, then Tiir only had him. It sucked to be the last one left alive. So he didn’t want to do that to Tiir, even if he got on his nerves more often than not.

Tiir was so thin that he looked like he’d drop dead any day. Ryner was sure that he looked about the same. But they were alive.

They were alive, and that was all that really mattered at this point. Well, there was one more thing. The virus wasn’t exactly thriving. All its hosts were dead, after all. It became safe to drink water again. Safe to walk around without those awful masks that’d made their mark on Ryner’s face forever. But the debris burned his throat if he did that, so he usually had to wear his mask anyway.

One day, a scientist’s speech found its way to their radio. If he was correct, then they’d be able to see the sun seven years after the antimatter reactors exploded.

That meant that seven years from now, the sun would come out again. Seven years from now, they’d live in a virus-free world where they could feel the sun shining on their faces for the first time in seven years.

He’d like to live to see that day.

**Author's Note:**

> i recently replayed the zero escape series and even now i absolutely adore vlr. i love how over the top it is and i love the concepts. tenmyouji end gutted me. this really has nothing to do with irl events i just really like vlr
> 
> as for this story, i do like tiir a lot but ryner's pov of him is very unforgiving. still, for all that theyre different i dont think theyd abandon each other in a situation like this. because i really dont think that either of them like to be alone


End file.
